In the end, it was not surprising, but it was no less disappointing for California League President Charlie Blaney.

“I’m most disappointed for the fans in both cities,” Blaney said. “They’re the fans who aren’t going to get Cal League baseball.”

Minor League Baseball made it official on Monday with the announcement that the California League’s High Desert Mavericks and Bakersfield Blaze would cease operations after the 2016 season.

As a result, the high Single-A league will shrink from 10 to eight teams for the 2017 season. There had been 10 teams in the league since 1986.

The High Desert Mavericks had been playing in Adelanto since 1991, when former Riverside Red Wave moved into a new stadium, then called Mavericks Stadium. Bakersfield, which had a team in the league in its inaugural season in 1941, also had a team in the league every season since 1982.

As a result, one of two high Single-A leagues in the east coast, the Carolina League, will expand from eight to 10 teams. New franchises for 2017 will be in Kinston, N.C. and Fayetteville, N.C.

Inadequate stadiums were a problem for both the Bakersfield and High Desert franchises. The Mavericks had the additional problem with the cash-strapped City of Adelanto’s attempt to evict the Mavericks from city-owned Stater Bros. Stadium. Bakersfield’s problem had to do with aging Sam Lynn Ballpark, which originally opened in 1941 and where the sun sets behind center field, requiring games to start after the sun sets.

For years, the California League had tried to get new stadiums built for the franchises either in their current cities or elsewhere, but all of those plans fell through. And Blaney said when public redevelopment money from the state of California disappeared in 2010, it became even more difficult to build a stadium.

“If we had a new stadium in Bakersfield, we wouldn’t be having this conversation now,” Blaney said. “And if you were to start the Cal League, it would be one of the first cities to look at.”

Although it had long been in the works, Monday’s announcement was a sad one for Rancho Cucamonga Quakes President Brent Miles, who served as Mavericks general manager in 2002-03 and team president from 2004-10.

“I’m sad for the fans. There’s a booster club that’s been there for 26 years. There were a lot of great memories created at that ballpark,” Miles said. “There’s such a great corps of people there, season ticket holders and sponsors, people who opened up their homes to players. I’ll remember how great the people were with the Mavericks.”

The idea of contraction in the Cal League had been brought up before, including in 2001 and 2009.

But in 2009 it was a slightly different story, with the idea that two existing Cal League franchises would be sold and moved to the Carolina League.

“That was a negotiation between the Carolina and the Cal League,” Blaney said. “This time, Minor League Baseball was in charge and they said, ‘fish or cut bait. We tried for years to get new facilities. We did this for the good of Minor League Baseball.”

Blaney said it fell through in 2009 in part because the sale of the franchises could not be completed, but also because there were not adequate Carolina League markets in which to move.

Blaney said there was financial compensation to the owners of Bakersfield and High Desert in exchange for the dissolution of their franchises. The Texas Rangers will own the franchise in Kinston, where the team will play at historic Grainger Stadium, which hosted a Cleveland Indians affiliate as recently as 2011. The owner of the Fayetteville franchise is unknown, but the Houston Astros have signed a memorandum of understanding with the city of Fayetteville to build a new ballpark there.

“It is with great regret and reluctance that the Mavericks are one of two teams being contracted from the California League as the Mavericks would prefer to remain in Adelanto as members of the California League,” Mavericks owner Dave Heller said in a press release. “The uncertainty of the future, stemming directly from the City of Adelanto’s effort to lock us out of a ballpark for which we have a binding legal contract, creates too much uncertainty for next season and beyond. That uncertainty is simply unacceptable to the team, the other members of the California League, the Texas Rangers and Minor League Baseball. As a result, this unfortunate action had to be taken.”

Blaney said Monday’s announcement had been months in the works. The outcome was so likely that Blaney had only compiled a 2017 Cal League schedule for eight teams, and not one of 10 teams.

Blaney said the announcement happened Monday because they were waiting for “all the ‘i’s to be dotted and the ‘t’s to be crossed. And that didn’t happen until last week.”

The remaining eight Cal League teams now have the preliminary 2017 schedule, and Blaney expects to the final 2017 schedule to be announced next week.

“We can look at 2017 now, but it’s disappointing for those fans,” Inland Empire 66ers General Manager Joe Hudson said. “We would always see some High Desert fans come to games when we played them. Hopefully, there are baseball fans (from the high desert) who will want to come to a game. We’ll have to see if they’re willing to come down the hill.”

Lake Elsinore Storm General Manager Raj Narayanan was also disappointed Monday’s announcement needed to happen and the people affected.

“It’s sad to see those two teams go. They’ve been great for our league,” Narayanan said. “I’ve known some of those employees as well, and it’s sad to see them go.”

The 2016 Cal League regular season concludes on Sept. 5, but High Desert, a Rangers affiliate, already clinched a spot in the playoffs by winning the first-half South Division title. Bakersfield, currently a Seattle Mariners affiliate, leads the North Division in the second half and would be in the playoffs if the season ended today.

The Mariners’ player development contract with Bakersfield and the Rangers’ PDC with High Desert had already been set to expire after the 2016 season.

While the teams have been successful on the field, High Desert and Bakersfield currently rank ninth and 10th in the league in attendance.

Pete Marshall started his career as a freelancer for The Sun in 1991, then later was hired full time by the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin in 1995. Since then he has covered a variety of sports for the Daily Bulletin and The Sun, primarily high school sports and minor league baseball. He's been doing it long enough that he's now covering the children of student-athletes he covered when he first started.

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